NEW HIVE

[Irwin]

GOT A NEW NUC ON 6-8-2008 ONE DEEP AND ONE MEEDEM TWO WEEK'S AFTER THE GUY I GOT THEM FROM WAS GOING TO HELP BUT DIDN'T SHOW UP TO HELP MY BEE'S HAVE SWARMED TWO TIMES TODAY CANT FIND THEM OSBA NOT ALOT OF HELP NOW I HAVE A WEAK HIVE.  PLEASE HELP !!

[Moonshae]

That's more than a nuc!

During the day, you can "balance" your hives by evening out the frames of brood, stores, and nurse bees between your hives, while the foragers are all out. Be sure not to "balance" two queens together.

If the new hive is really weak now, and balancing will threaten your other hives, you might consider doing a newspaper combine with your weakest other hive, to give that a boost. Sucks that you lost two swarms, though. If they both happened today, they were probably afterswarms, meaning the hive had swarmed earlier, as well. I might not buy from the same guy again, if he's selling hives that have just swarmed.

[Irwin]

I GOT A NUC AND HE SOLD ME A DEEP AND IN TWO WEAK'S I GOT A MEDIUM SUPPER I DID NOT KNOW THEY WOULD GROW THIS STRONG THIS FAST

[Kathyp]

just to clarify:  are you talking about one hive, or two?  if it's one, there isn't much you can do except hope they have time to build up again.  if you have two, take some brood from the strong hive (do not take the queen) and put it in the weak hive.  it will help them recover.  you might also consider feeding the weak hive if your blackberries are done, or they don't have much honey stored.

[Irwin]

One hive. Boy do I feel bumed

[Kathyp]

you could call the guy that sold you the hive and ask if he has a couple of frames of brood he'll sell you.  also, evaluate your food sources.  in oregon, our main sources are berries.  if your blackberries are almost done, start feeding this hive.  they still have a couple of months to build back up.  make sure the queen has room to lay.  they will often cram the hive with honey before swarming.  if there are honey frames in the brood area, move them over and put drawn comb for her to lay.

then, try not to disturb them to much other than needed checks.  give them a chance to grow again.  by mid September you'll need to decide how much room you will leave them for winter.  if they winter over small, that's ok as long as they have the appropriate size space and food.

[Irwin]

He is coming over today to check it out i'll let you know what he say's

[Irwin]

One swarm came back :-D we went in and found a bunch of brood and we found seven queen cell's with good honey had to stick my finger in it to see what it tasted like it was great. Putting on a super today he didn't bring one because he didn't think I would need it. But all the frame's were full we will put it in the middle by the way I got one deep and one medium and putting on another medium.I feel better now. Thank's for the support,

[Kathyp]

very often things take care of themselves :-).  glad things are looking up!